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Updated: May 4, 2026
Molecular Profiling of the Invasive Tumor Microenvironment in a 3-Dimensional Model of Colorectal Cancer Cells and Ex vivo Fibroblasts
Published on: April 29, 2014
Analysis of differentially expressed genes in colorectal adenocarcinoma with versus without metastasis by
Rita M A M Moura Franco1, Marcelo M Linhares1, Suzana S Lustosa1
1UNIFESP - EPM (Federal University Of Sao Paulo), Escola Paulista de Medicina São Paulo, Brasil.
Background:
Our objective was to examine how the gene expression profile of tumor tissue correlates with lymph node metastasis in patients with advanced colorectal adenocarcinoma (CRAC).
Methods:
We studied 36 patients (20 men and 16 women, 22-90 years of age) treated for CRAC (classifications of T2, T3, or T4; histological grade of G1 or G2). Amplified tumor mRNA samples were exposed to 20,000 human sequence probes and digitized images of the hybridized samples were analyzed.
Results:
On average, 2389 probes were detected above the background, with an average correlation R value of 0.19 between data from different patient groups (with or without lymph node invasion, colon or rectal, with or without angio-lymphatic invasion, with or without recurrence). Lymph node metastasis had a statistically significant signature according to Significance Analysis of Microarrays (SAM) and parametric t-tests, with a false discovery rate (FDR)=0.1% and p=0.001, respectively. Cross-correlation of these two tests identified 102 transcripts as being potentially related to node metastases, with fold changes in the range of 2.182-12.960.
Conclusion:
We identified 102 differentially expressed genes related to the presence of lymph node metastases in patients with advanced colorectal cancer.
